Information structure

Abstract

The term information structure is often used as a convenient cover expression for a bundle of phenomena—referred to by (back)ground, comment, contrast, focus, given, new, rheme, theme, topic and associated terms—that exhibit pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic and phonological features. It is clear that information structure affects content, and in particular that it concerns context-sensitive aspects of content, but it is not universally agreed whether information structure forms a distinct dimension within the interpretive component of language.